Phl infra program assured of quality cement imports

With its massive infrastructure development program, the government assures the public that only quality cement products are entering the Philippine market

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said all of the country’s cement importations have passed quality tests since the implementation of the new Department Administrative Order (DAO) in November last year.

“In the review of implementation of the revised DTI Department Administrative Order 17-06:2017, governing the procedure in testing the standard compliance of all imported cement, we found 100 percent compliance where all shipments of imported cement passed the post shipment tests conducted by the Bureau of Product Standard-accredited testing laboratories,” Lopez said.

Since November last year, Lopez said there were a total of 167 cement shipments totaling 1.934 million metric tons done by 32 traders and manufacturers.

“It will be recalled that the DAO was issued by DTI to ensure that the cement being imported gets to be tested for strict standard compliance, following the mandate of President Duterte to protect the interest of consumers and ensure that the cement being used domestically are of high quality and safe,” the trade chief said.

Of the 167 shipments, Lopez said 24 conducted pre-shipment tests from its source country through accredited testing laboratories.

He said all these pre-shipment tests were also subjected to post-shipment tests and all have passed the post-shipment tests.

“This review is being done to double check if pre-shipment tests, which some importers avail of, would also pass the critical tests done when they arrive in our country. So far so good,” Lopez said.

“Importation of both traders and manufacturers are now subject to full tests.

This is also in support of the aggressive infrastructure program that the Duterte administration is pushing for, where supply of quality cement will also be assured so as to stabilize cement prices,” he added.